And Revathi plays her with an exuberance and energy that is quite a treat to watch. She has a spark of irreverence, an insistent recognition of her own desires, and a fairly clear-headed understanding of her own strengths and short-comings. Against the enduring mythologising of the good Tamil woman as quiet, self-sacrificing, and self-effacing, Divya is a breath of fresh air. Take that easy crutch of the past lover out of the film, however, and there are quite a few engaging touches to the film that make you see why this film established Mani Ratnam’s reputation as a writer and director. Indeed, quite late in the film, when Divya has started to come around, but CK hasn’t realised it yet, he accuses her of being childish, and declares that such childishness can only be tolerated up to a point. Though, to be fair, it is far less aggressive and offensive than some of the examples we see today.ĭrawing as it does from a refusal to move on from that first relationship, what initially seems like a spirited resistance to arranged marriage from Divya gradually become reduced to a naive stubbornness. That the flashback of that relationship shows it starting off with the “don’t take no for an answer” method that seems standard courtship protocol for Tamil “heroes” adds to this disappointment. That Divya is only unwilling to participate in her current marriage because of a previous relationship is something of a letdown, in an otherwise interesting premise.
#Tamilo mouna ragam today movie
But as the movie progresses, we find out that these vehement declarations were a cover for feelings she still holds for a dead lover (Karthik), a Robin-Hoodesque strongman, who participates in violence in the name of certain un-enunciated principles.
She wants to study further, she declares instead. When Divya first objects to her marriage, she does so with principled arguments against the idea of arranged marriage (asking at one point if she is being sold off to the lowest bidder in terms of dowry).
Burdened by the emotional remnants of a past relationship, Divya finds herself unwilling and unable to love her husband, but is eventually won over.Įxpectedly, there are elements of the story that don’t sit well if we read them according to today’s standards. While Chandrakumar (played by Mohan) or CK, as he’s called, wants to be an enthusiastic and caring husband, his wife Divya (Revathi) enters the marriage reluctantly, only out of the guilt of causing her father’s heart attack by her initial refusal of the match. Playing on my mind was the question of whether the film could stand up to renewed scrutiny with so much having been written and said about the institution of marriage in the intervening decades.įor the uninitiated, “Mouna Ragam” tells the tale of an arranged marriage that is hobbled from the start by the asymmetry of feeling between the two spouses. With the 30th anniversary of the film rolling by earlier this month, I returned to the film expectant and hesitant by turns.
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